Washington College of Law
Center For Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

RESOLUTION No 25/89

CASE 9811 (EL SALVADOR)

September 28, 1989

BACKGROUND

On October 30, 1986, the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights received
the following complaint:

At eleven o'clock in the morning on August 6, 1986,
soldiers of the CIIFA
took prisoner in his home FELIPE BERNAL MARTINEZ, a Salvadoran,
42 years
of age, a shoemaker resident at San Pedro Nonualco in the
jurisdiction of
Zacatecoluca, La Paz Department, El Salvador. After invading and
searching the
house, they bound the victim and took him to his father's house,
where the CIIFA
soldiers captured his two brothers as well JULIAN BERNAL MARTINEZ
and
DOMINGO BERNAL MARTINEZ, the latter 30 years old. To the
protests of the
Bernal family the soldiers replied that they were taking their
captives to "a
conference."

On August 7, 1986, Domingo Bernal Martínez's
wife, accompanied by
friends, went in quest of the brothers, and quickly located the
corpses of the three.
Their throats had been cut, and Domingo's tongue had been cut
out.

Through a witness the Bernal family has learned that
the brothers were
taken by CIIFA soldiers to the Civil Defense Headquarters at San
Pedro Nonualco,
where they were kept bound and subjected to torture. At 2
o'clock in the morning
of August 7, 1986, a small truck with its lights off moved away
from the Civil
Defense Headquarters. Later the commandant there asserted that
the Bernals had
been executed "to set an example, because they were accused of
collaboration with
the guerrillas."

The corpses were identified by the local judge and then
released to the
family for interment.

In a letter of October 14, 1986, the Commission
transmitted the pertinent parts of
the complaint to the Government of El Salvador with a request
that it supply such information as
it deemed appropriate within 90 days.

On January 28, 1987, the Government of El Salvador
replied to the Commission
with the following note:

This Commission assigned a delegate to the Second
Criminal Court, of
Zacatecoluca, to make a thorough investigation of the case.
Following are the
salient details of his report: "In the said Court the Secretary
furnished me with the
following case: Entry No. 261/1986. Report on investigation into
the death of the
late FELIPE BERNAL MARTINEZ, JULIAN BERNAL MARTINEZ, and
DOMINGO BERNAL MARTINEZ in consequence of lesions produced
apparently by an edged weapon (machete). The scene of the deed,
in the
Guadalupe quarter of San Pedro Nonualco, was inspected on August
7, 1986, at
9:30 in the morning. Later that day the three corpses were
examined by the
medical experts MIGUEL VENTURA and JOSE DOMINGO MOLINA.
Subsequently, on August 11 of that year, a declaration as injured
party was
received from Mrs. TEODORA ARDON stating that she did not feel
injured and
suspected no person of the death of her husband and
brothers-in-law. That at
about 11 o'clock in the morning of August 6, 1986, she was in the
house of her
residence in Hacienda Vieja Canton, in San Pedro Nonualco
jurisdiction, and her
husband DOMINGO BERNAL MARTINEZ said to her that he did not know
why
those boys were moving about there, referring to some individuals
wearing those
patched uniforms and bearing arms those rifles that have come out
today and
which they say are new; they had already surrounded the house,
but she could not
tell how many they were, and said only that they were a
'handful.' That after
half-an-hour one of those individuals chatted with her
brother-in-law FELIPE
BERNAL MARTINEZ and told him they were from Zacatecoluca and were
stationed in San Pedro Nonualco. That after the half-hour those
individuals took
away her husband and brothers-in-law. That she heard nothing
from them until she
found them dead. On August 12, 1986, the Justice of the Peace of
San Pedro
Nonualco referred the case to the 2nd Criminal Court of
Zacatecoluca, La Paz
Department, which Court took formal cognizance of it on August 21
of the same
year. The next day, August 22, the 2nd Criminal Court asked the
municipal
government of San Pedro Nonualco to authenticate the death
certificates of the
three deceased parties. On August 26 the corpses of the deceased
were formally
identified and, finally, the death certificates were taken as
received on September
2, 1986."

The Government's reply was duly conveyed to the
complainant on February 16,
1987.

Since the facts of the complaint had been duly verified
by the Government of El
Salvador but the Government's reply said nothing about judicial
proceedings against the
perpetrators of the murder of the BERNAL MARTINEZ family or about
the action taken against
those who had summarily executed them, on July 7, 1988, the IACHR
again requested the
Government of El Salvador to send it information on the status of
the case within 30 days.

On August 18, 1988, the Government of El Salvador
replied to the IACHR with a
repetition of the text of the report sent on January 28, 1987,
which was the information supplied
to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Governmental Commission
on Human Rights.

Direct personal inquiry was subsequently made to the
Governmental Commission
on Human Rights for more information on the measures taken by the
Government in connection
with the matter of the complaint, but no answer has yet been
received from that state agency.

CONSIDERING:

That the complaint meets the formal requirements for
admissibility in Article 46 (d)
of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 32 of the
Regulations of the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights;

That in the present case it is manifest that the
petitioner has been unable to obtain
effective protection by the jurisdictional authorities, thus
rendering inapplicable the requirement of
exhaustion of domestic remedies under paragraph 2(b) in Article
46 of the American Convention;

That the procedure for friendly settlement referred to
in Articles 48 (f) and 45 of
the American Convention and the Commission's Regulations,
respectively, is inapplicable to the
present case;

That the complaint is not pending settlement by some
other international procedure
and so is not subject to the disqualification envisaged in
Articles 47 (d) of the American
Convention or paragraph 1, Article 39 of the Commission's
Regulations;

That the complaint does not duplicate a previous
petition already examined by the
Commission, and thereby escapes the same disqualification of
Articles 47 (d) of the American
Convention and paragraph 1, Article 39 of the Commission's
Regulations;

That in the present case all steps have been taken to
obtain from the Government
of El Salvador satisfactory information on the murder of the
persons mentioned, and all the legal
and regulatory procedures established in the Convention and the
Commission's Regulations have
been exhausted;

That the official reply of the Government of El
Salvador conveys no indication as
to whether the investigation required in this sensitive case to
establish the identity of the soldiers
who illegally seized the BERNAL MARTINEZ brothers in their home
and subsequently killed
them, nor that of the officers who ordered this done, if such was
the case;

That the deed charged is corroborated in the direct
testimony of the wife of one of
the victims, who was an eyewitness to the forcing of her husband
and his brothers out of their
home and to their removal hence by force and against their will
by men of the Sixth Infantry
Brigade;

That there are other eyewitnesses to the seizure of the
victims, members of their
own family, who recognized the soldiers and sought to dissuade
them from taking the brothers
away, and in reply were told that they were being taken to "a
conference;"

That, moreover, the family was advised that the
soldiers had taken them in the
direction of the Civil Defense Headquarters of San Pedro
Nonualco, where they were reportedly
seen bound and being subjected to torture;

That the applicable requirements of Articles 48 of the
American Convention on
Human Rights and 34 et. seq. of the Commissions
Regulations have been complied with;

That, despite the time that has elapsed and the
Commission's repeated and fruitless
efforts, the Government of El Salvador has made no further reply
on the present case and
requested no extension of time for transmitting the information;

That the Government's reply, far from disproving the
charges, confirms them over
and over with the direct, personal testimony of Mrs. Teodora
Ardón, an eyewitness to the events,
who states that a group of men in uniform bearing heavy arms
carried off her husband
DOMINGO BERNAL MARTINEZ and her brothers-in-law FELIPE BERNAL
MARTINEZ and
JULIAN BERNAL MARTINEZ of whom nothing more was known until she
found them dead.

THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN
RIGHTS,

Exercising the powers vested in it,

RESOLVES:

To declare, in light of the foregoing, that the
Government of El Salvador has
violated Articles 4 (right to life), 5 (right to humane
treatment), and 7 (right to personal liberty) in
connection with Article 1 (1) of the American Convention on Human
Rights, to which El
Salvador is a party, in respect of the murder of FELIPE BERNAL
MARTINEZ, JULIAN
BERNAL MARTINEZ, and DOMINGO BERNAL MARTINEZ.

To recommend to the Government of El Salvador that it
order a complete and
impartial investigation to identify the perpetrators of the facts
charged, punish them in accordance
with Salvadoran law, that fair compensation be granted to the
families, and advise the
Commission within 90 days on the steps taken to act on the
recommendations set forth in this
resolution.

To transmit this resolution to the Government of El
Salvador and to the
complainant.

To include this resolution in the Annual Report to the
General Assembly of the
Organization of American States if information in the terms of
paragraph 2, above, is not
received.